Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/477

] quickly, and from which even a good swimmer would have found it difficult to escape. That was not the only danger we had to apprehend; for we might have fallen a prey to a large shark, which kept at a small distance a-stern. We had observed him hovering about the ship ever since day-break, and he followed our boat as if he longed for one of us. The chaplain of the Recherche fell into the water, and would have been devoured by that animal, if the cockswain of the boat had not rescued him from the danger.

Some sailors belonging to the Esperance, when strolling upon the rocks, killed a number of seals of different colours; white, grey more or less deep, and brown, bordering upon black. They were, however, all of the same species, which has been denominated by Buffon petit phoque. Their flesh was found very good eating.

The little island on which we were, was composed of fine granite or quartz. There were also quantities of feldt-spar and mica; this last in blackish plates. We also observed some few spiculæ of black schorl. The granite lay bare in many places. The vegetable mould, collected in the least precipitous situations, was covered with shrubs, sometimes so close together, as not to be easily penetrated. I plucked a magnificent species of